By Dave Lahr: Much has been made of Nonito Donaire’s slight height and reach advantage he’ll have in his fight against WBC/WBO bantamweight champion Fernando Montiel (44-2-2, 34 KO’s) on February 19th at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Donaire, 5’6″, will have a two inch height advantage of Montiel and an inch and half reach advantage.

The height is meaningless and the reach is really negligible. What this fight will come down to his the fighter with the better power and the better boxing skills, and in this case, it’s Montiel. He’s the much bigger puncher and has a lot more experience against quality opposition compared to Donaire. That’s not Donaire’s fault. If his promoter Bob Arum has been willing to match Donaire tough the past three years, he would be a lot better fighter for it.

Unfortunately, Arum has kept Donaire in limbo for three years without putting him in with a tough opponent since he defeated Vic Darchinyan in 2007. Now Donaire is going from facing weak opponents to facing the best fighter in the bantamweight division in Montiel. I see this as huge mistake by Arum to put Donaire in with an advanced fighter like Montiel instead of putting him in with a preliminary fighter like Abner Mares, Yonnhy Perez or Anselmo Moreno.

This is going to be a slaughter because of Arum’s poor match-making for Donaire. He just doesn’t have the tools to handle the power that Montiel has in both fists. This is why I see Donaire running like the wind to keep away from Montiel. It’s going to be ugly with all the running that Donaire will be doing in this fight.